As readers of this blog know, the thing I love most about food is regional cuisine. Sure, I may not like everything that makes a region popular, but I love the idea that no matter where you grew up, there’s going to be some brand, food, or preparation technique that will always make you think of home.

In Michigan, that food is the Coney Dog. I’m not a hot dog eater, so it’s not something that I’ve been able to adapt to. I’ve tried it once and wasn’t a huge fan only because I don’t like the dog. The chili is delicious and I could eat that without the hot dogs.

There are always imitators when it comes to a region’s marquee cuisine. Yeah, you can get a coney dog here in Lansing, but up until last week, you couldn’t get it from one of the big names in Detroit coney’s.

National Coney Station opened up on Grand River Avenue in the building that was most recently Moe’s Firehouse. Before that, it was a Spartan Gyro. National Coney did a lot of work to the building to clean it up. I never got a chance to eat at Moe’s before it closed, but for some reason, the place always scared me a little bit.

National Coney Station is not quite the same as the National Coney Island restaurants you’re familiar with in Detroit. They’re owned by the same company, but they’re designed to be more of a quickservice restaurant. The menu is much, much smaller having only nine choices plus some a la cart items. Read the rest of this entry »

We invite MSU football fans to highlight your tailgate party and support the homeless by showcasing your football traditions. Haven House is compiling a tailgate cookbook, “Tailgating on the Banks of the Red Cedar” as a fundraiser to help support homeless families. All proceeds will benefit Haven House.

Haven House provides emergency housing and support services for one-parent and two-parent families with children. The shelter helps families who are homeless prepare for permanent housing by developing and promoting self-sufficiency, stability, and financial responsibility.

Haven House volunteers will be attending Michigan State University home football games this season to interview tailgaters. If you would like to share your recipes, stories, and photographs to include in the cookbook please contact Tiffany Chenault at (517) 337-2731

To be considered, you will need to have the information available for our volunteers on game days, or submit your recipe and story by email at tchenault@havenhouseel.org, or by fax to 517-337-2910.

I love late night pizza-by-the-slice places and I love living near a college town that has many places to fill that late night craving.

J got home from work just before midnight like she always does and I said, “I’m hungry” like I always do. This time, she said she had a taste for pizza or tacos too. We debated the pros and cons of each and eventually settled on pizza. Since there’s no place on the south side of Lansing to get a slice at midnight, we trekked to East Lansing.

There are a couple locations for Georgio’s in East Lansing, but I chose the one in the downtown area on Charles Street. We drove around the streets of downtown a few times on a very busy Friday night looking for pizza. I knew there was a Georgio’s and a Bell’s, but I didn’t remember which was where. We drove by Bell’s because there were so many kids around and no place to park. I made it to Georgio’s and got really lucky. There was a parking space right out front. I showed off my awesome parallel parking skills (there was no space in front of me, so really, I just pulled in) and we went inside. Read the rest of this entry »

Beginning Friday, Spartan fans can get Final Four Fudge Dribble ice cream at the Michigan State University Dairy Store. The vanilla ice cream with fudge swirl sprinkled with little chocolate-covered malted milk “basketballs” is being made on campus today.

I’m working in Ann Arbor most of the day on Friday, so I’ll have to convince J to head over to East Lansing to pick up a gallon. Even without the Final Four name, it sounds like a tasty ice cream.

I have no idea why I’ve been craving Mexican lately, but it’s been like an everyday thing. J’s step-dad headed back to Chicago, but her mom stayed for another day. We made a run to Howell after breakfast then did some grocery shopping at Horrocks and Walmart. By the time we got home, we were all starting to get a little hungry. I sat down in front of the computer and asked what they were in the mood for. To my surprise, J said Mexican which is what I was thinking. Instead of going to one of the two places that are close to our apartment, I wanted to go to East Lansing and try one of the most popular restaurants in downtown.

El Azteco is on Ann Street near the Marriot in a that strip of restaurants at the corner of M.A.C. and Ann. From all the things I’ve read, El Azteco made it’s name at a different location a few blocks that wasn’t nearly as flashy or noticeable as the new building. While I love atmosphere, restaurants don’t survive without good food. It was the good food we were really after.

We walked into El Azteco just after 6:00 on a Sunday night. It was still spring break at MSU, so the clientel was mostly older people and families. Someone in the kitchen noticed us and told us to take a seat in one of the front dining rooms. There are actually three dining room areas. Two of them are are in the front and look out to Ann Street. The third is off to the left when you walk in and it runs along the kitchen. We took a booth along the wall. As you can imagine, the decor has sort of a southwest feel. The tables are primitive with no frills. The benches of the booth are all wood with no padding. They are also pretty close to the table. They really force good posture. Read the rest of this entry »

I wish my first visit to Jenison Field House was thirty years. When I walked in to the building for the first time, the first and only thing I could think was, “I bet this place was loud.” I knew of Jenison before I moved to Lansing. Who hasn’t? I loved watching the old clips of Magic Johnson in East Lansing. I can only imagine what the place was like. Sure, it’s huge, but those big cavernous ceilings had to make the place loud.

Jenison Field House is on the campus of MSU just off Kalamazoo Street. It’s just a block or so from it’s replacement, the Jack Breslin Student Events Center (review HERE). It’s a huge building. At first, I was wondering how they would even do basketball, but figured it out after seeing the wrestling set up.

Jenison was opened in 1940 and was the home to Spartan basketball until 1989. The facility is now used for Women’s volleyball, gymnastics, wrestling, and indoor track & field as well as a practice facility for a number of MSU sports. There is permanent seating in an upper deck that runs around the entire facility. The surface is a multi purpose rubber which is used for track and field. When other events are held in the Field House, a curtain is dropped to divide the arena into a smaller area and portable bleachers are brought in to fill out the empty spaces. Read the rest of this entry »